Researching your Basque Name

Whether you have known all your life or you just found out your last name is Basque, it's important to know a few tools that will help you succeed in your research. First you should know if the name is more common on the French or the Spanish side of the Basque Country as the research tools vary significantly in these two countries.
So before you begin, go to Ellis Island and search for your ancestor as he most likely arrived in New York. The website contains records of boat passengers arriving in New York between 1892 - 1954; more than 12 million people!
If you think he arrived between 1820 - 1892, go to Castle Garden. This immigrant center received an estimated 8 million people. Be advised that the majority of the records were burned in a fire.

Join the Basque-Genealogy Group!

Spanish Basque Country ( Hegoalde)

If your research takes you to Spain, you should know that there are 3 provinces in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country: Guipuzcoa, Vizcaya and Alaba. Then there is Navarra, also an autonomous community. Try the following sites as they have multiple databases free of charge:

Archivo Diocesano de San Sebastian: This is the Archive of the Diocesis of San Sebastian, in the province of Gipuzkoa where you'll find birth, marriage and death records of all the towns of the province. They are still transcribing records and thus some towns are not yet available.

Archivo Eclesiastico de Bilbao: This is the Archive of the Diocesis of Bilbao, in the province of Vizcaya and has the same structure as the one from San Sebastián. So far, the documents of 215 churches have been analyzed.

Archivo Eclesiastico de Vitoria This is the Archive of the Diocesis of Vitoria, in the province of Alava where you'll find birth, marriage and death records of all the towns of the province. They are still transcribing records and thus some towns are not yet available.

IRARGI This is the Basque Country Documentary Heritage Center that, among other things, regroups the ecclesiastical records from the Archives of San Sebastian, Vitoria and Bilbao providing almost 6 million references. Great tool if you don't know where the name's origin.

Antzinako: Association with multiple databases containing information such as lineages, municipalities, occupations, photographs of houses (caseríos), the magazine Antzina and much more. Note: Antzinako covers not only Navarra but the Basque Country as well.

Mormon Church: The Mormon Church might be your best resource for Navarra's records as they have microfilmed the church records of most cities. Also, you may want to check the CDs on Vital Records Collection for Europe for it contains many cities from Navarra that are not on the mormon's website.

Archivo General de Navarra: Located in Pamplona, the General Archive of Navarra does not provide information online although a database is proyected for the near future.

French Basque Country (Iparralde)

GHFPBAM: Généalogie et Histoire du Pays Basque et Adour Maritime, a genealogical association that covers all towns of the French Department Pyrinees Atlantiques, also known as #64 including the Basque Country on the French side (Iparralde). This is THE website for researching Basque last names as it is constantly incrementing the size of its databases. Available in English!

AD64: Department 64 Archive where they keep all the records. Keep an eye on this website as they will soon have the vital records online!

FranceGenWeb: This is the ABC of French genealogy with multiple databases, help forums and a variety of guides. French only!

Geoportail: This website is great for locating your ancestor's house or maison. Pick your town and access satellite views of the terrain and superimpose the land registry. Available in English!

Confused about the double last name system in Spain? Read this!

Many Americans have told me that they don't understand the double last name system used in Spain thus, I'll try to simplify it for you:

Say your name is Juan Etcheverry and you marry Maria Aguerre. If you had a son named Pedro his full name would be Pedro Etcheverry Aguerre because his first surname is his father's and his second surname is his mother's.

Now imagine that Pedro Etcheverry Aguerre marries Juana Goicochea Unanue and they have a family. In this case, the kids would take the first surname of the father followed by the first surname of the mother:

Juan Pedro Etcheverry Goicochea

The first surname is always the paternal line as the second surname is always the maternal line

Having said that, once you start your research in Iparralde (French Basque Country) you'll see that in France they use only one surname, commonly that of the father. Keep in mind, that it is the house -caserío or maison- that gives rise to the surname and not the other way around. So, if the owner of the house was the mother, the descendants will have her surname and not the father's!